Anyone who has struggled with the problem of keeping matched articles of clothing, such as socks and hosiery, together during washing and drying recognizes that attachment devices are useful for this purpose. It seems in some instances that washing machines and dryers virtually consume such small articles of clothing as socks preventing their pairing after cleaning. Also it is desirable to keep such matched pairs of clothing with similar or identical markings together so that they will not be lost or difficult to find at the end of the drying cycle since loss of one such article of a matched pair renders the other one all but useless to the wearer.
However, many of the attachment devices provided heretofore have involved penetration of the fabric, or material from which the clothing is made, causing damage thereto. Other devices, while not actually penetrating the fabric, do stetch it or distort it in some other way.
One proposed solution to the lost articles of clothing has been to place ssmall articles like socks or hosiery in a hose bag of foraminous nature so that they will be kept together during the washing and drying cycles. Net bags have been used for this purpose. Such bags permit co-mingling of the individual members of pairs and suffer from the further disadvantage that the access to the soap and the cleansing action afforded by washing a matched pair of socks together is lost due to the tendency to place a larger number of pairs of hose in such bag than will accommodate thorough cleaning. Additionally the use of such net bags still presents the user with the problem of sorting and matching after the drying cycle has been finished. Thus net bags are not particularly useful to the person who is sightless, or color-blind or otherwise has impaired eyesight.
In certain cases, for example, where the cclothing is to be washed and dried at public laundromats, it is desirable to be able to identify clothing as to its owner. One of the commonest ways of identifying such clothing has been by sewing labels to an inside surface of the garment which does not appear when it is worn. The maneuver is time consuming and still does not serve the needs of providing identification for those having impaired vision.
Hence the provision of inexpensive means to keep the matched articles of clothing together during washing and drying cycles when they are subjected to vigorous tossing and rolling motions and providing a means of identification which can be used by persons having impaired vision while at the same time avoiding puncturing and distoring the fabric, or other material from which the garments are made, has long been desired.
Indeed one of the advantageous features of the present invention is that it can be used for a wide variety of clothing items and is not limited to use with socks or hosiery. For example, since the device of this invention does not penetrate or distort the fabric on which it is clamped, it can be used in place of a clothespin to hang clothes on a line to dry. Also by making the hinged portion of the device sufficiently long, the device of this invention can be used to hang trousers, skirts, etc., by looping it over a hanging bar. One advantage to the use of the device of this invention in hanging trousers is that by hanging them with the leg portion up, it tends to maintain the crease in the trousers.
Typical of the prior art patents which penetrate completely through the fabric or other material from which the garment is made are U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,386 to A. S. Trundy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,230 to J. P. Hankel and U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,780 to Robert L. White.
The Trundy patent is directed to a fabric fastening device having pins 16 and 18 which assume a mating position with regard to relieved bosses 20 and 22 to engage same with the fabric pinned therebetween. Upper arm 10 which is hinged at 12 to lower arm 14 completes the fastener assembly with the aforementioned pin passing through the fabric thus securing the fabric to the fastener.
The White patent illustrates a hinged clamp having discs carried at opposed ends whereby one of the said discs carries a projecting, pointed penetrating shaft 18 which engages through a sleeve 26 so that the shaft 18 penetrates through the fabric and its head (end portion) 20 passes through the sleeve 26 allowing the projections 22 on said head to be locked on the annular rim at the flange 28 provided for this purpose.
The Hankel patent features a pair of spaced parallel prongs or pins 14 having cloth penetrating ends 15 including a conical tip or point 16 which penetrates through abutting portions 29 of members 30 to lock the overlap layers of the diaper cloth in position.
Again it is a common feature of the White, Hankel and Trundy patents that one or more members of the clamping device actually penetrate and pierce through the fabric. Such a feature is undesirable and can be avoided in accordance with the device of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,240 to Karl H. Schiller is directed to an identification snap for attachment to woven material and is comprised of two separate detachable members, one being a first plate member having an identifying indicia on its outer surface and a post projecting from an inner surface and a second plate member having an opening. The fabric is placed between these two post members and the first post member is pushed so that the fabric is either penetrated or wedged between the bulbous tip of the post member having indicia and the doughnut-shaped second plate. Although it is stated in the Schiller patent that the bulbous tip prevents fabric damage, it is clear that this tip and the "interference fit" manner of operation of the Schiller identification snap would either penetrate the fabric or cause the distortion of same by stretching it. Clearly the use of the Schiller device would not seem applicable to other than woven fabrics and would be of dubious utility to certain woven fabrics such as are employed in trousers, skirts and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,655 issued to Myron E. Ullman, Jr. is directed to a device particularly useful to the blind and colorblind for sorting fabrics, such as socks. The device utilizes a plurality of tabs connected by hinge springs to a frame. In use the fabric is slipped between the tab and the frame. The tab is then pushed through the aperture in the frame forcing the fabric through the aperture before it. The tab is then biased by the hinge springs against the frame securing the tag to the article of clothing. It will be apparent from inspection of the drawing figures of the Ullman, Jr. patent, particularly FIGS. 1 through 4 that the forcing of the tab 11 through a fold of the fabric would inherently create stretching at the point of contact with the tab end 11a. Such a distortion of fabric is avoided by the use of the present invention.
It will be observed that a feature common to each of the above-noted prior art patents is that the fabrics sought to be clamped are held between the clamping members which penetrate or distort (e.g., stretch) the fabric. This is avoided in accordance with this invention because the clamping members of the present device grip and compress but do not penetrate or stretch the fabric of the articles being clamped.